Experimental determination of the E2 component in the Coulomb dissociation of 8B

Angular distributions of the Coulomb dissociation of ⁸B in the field of ²⁰⁸Pb at E_in = 51.9 MeV/u were measured at 0° ≶ θ₈ ≶ 10° and 0.5 ≶ E_rel ≶ 2.25 MeV. The data were analyzed using a quantum mechanical method where E1, E2 and l = 2 nuclear amplitudes are included. Although systematic effectscould be large, the extracted E2 components appear to be considerably smaller than any theoretical predictions reported so far.